Vol. 3, Issue 11, Part E (2017)

Abstract
Title: “Effectiveness of meditation on Psychological well being among the elderly persons”
Purpose: To determine the effectiveness of meditation on Psychological well being among the elderly persons” Psychological wellbeing and health are closely related, which are more important at older ages. Physical diseases, psychological illness and adjustment problems are quite common during this phase of life. Meditation is considered as a type of mind-body complementary medicine. It can give a sense of calmness, peace and balance that benefits both emotional well-being and overall health of individual persons.
Methods & Material: A pre-experimental pre-test-post-test one group design with non-probability purposive sampling method. The tool consisted of section I (demographic data), and section II Subjective Psychological well being Inventory (Ryffs Scales of Psychological Well Being).
Results: Out of 60 subjects, 41.80 % of them belonged to age above 70 years and 78.40% were female. 20 % of subjects had been practising some form of meditation before. Paired t-test for comparison of pre-test and post-test scores showed significant effectiveness of meditation in improving psychological well being of elderly persons, as average score in pre-test was 62.2, which increased to 63.85 in post-test, t-value was 5.373 with 59 degrees of freedom. Corresponding p-value was 0.000. In Fisher’s Exact Test for association p value was >0.05. Hence psychological well being was found not significantly associated with selected demographic variables.
Conclusion: The analysis revealed that Raj yoga meditation was helpful to improve the subjective psychological well being of elderly persons. However, such measures can be utilized effectively with long run for more and better outcome.